The UVNA has joined forces with four other neighborhood organizations to work towards financial and logistical accountability. Our request letter is attached below.

We ask for:
-Complete transparency of festival financial statements. Including a detailed breakout of sponsorships, vendors, beer sales, grants, expenses & donations (at minimum, for the prior two years).
-Inclusion of neighborhood groups in each festival’s logistics, safety & police plans in a timely fashion so they can have input and inform residents of what to expect.
-Understanding that profits vary by fest, we would like more consistency between fests in our neighborhoods regarding the portion of proceeds that go to community beneficiaries.
-If the festival decides to take donations, they must post signage explaining how the donation will be used. (Chicago law states that you can’t charge admission to the public way) This should include an established percentage of the gate to be donated to the identified non-profit, excluding festival organizers.
-Each festival takes the responsibility to make sure any community organizations or non-profits receiving funds [or donations] are legitimate and are using proceeds as stated to go back into the neighborhood on a timely basis

Updated 6/4: We have had good meetings with the West Town Chamber of Commerce about festival accountability, looking forward to working more closely with them on additional neighborhood concerns due to the street festivals.